A young person made this based off the old Dear Abby article.

"Tap redeem..." not sure exactly and it likely depends on a few factors: which ecash wallet, which nostr client if used, but I did it yesterday. Someone sent me a generous tip, it appeared on Amethyst as a message, I tapped redeem, the sats immediately appeared in my Alby wallet (yes, I know, Alby is custodial too...things likely can to be set up to go to whatever wallet is preferred). I'm not sure the mechanics on your question about unsolicited redemptions? My guess is that the mints trust the Cashu token is truly backed by sats. By "trust" I mean that the mint knows that the cryptography behind the protocol ensures that any ecash token is legit, therefore it's accepted.

I can appreciate your skepticism...that's the bitcoin way and it's healthy. I think most of us are still learning, I certainly am. Maybe someone out there can help me out on the question of whether mint B will redeem a Cashu token from mint A and get me from 99% sure to 100%.

Nicely put. Someone in economics said, "There are no wins and losses, only tradeoffs."

Nice breakdown. Thanks

This. Except I wouldn't say "haters" personally, just folks making their own decision. Plus, it's OK to change ones mind too along the journey.

99% sure the answer to your first question is yes. Picking mints does require trust, like trusting your local bank will be open tomorrow. Don't want to deal with them, then don't. If someone gave you a nice sized ecash tip, you could ignore it. No harm. Or you could tap redeem and receive the sats. In that sense, you're not really using ecash so much as just accepting says.

Either way, it's fine to not use ecash. We each do our thing as we choose.

Did not know this, thanks for the info. My first thoughts: (1) there's a tradeoff for everything (TINSTAAFL) and (2) I'm okay with services that add value making a profit. It's best if things are up front and clear though (as you suggest they're not right now).

I understand and that's certainly your call. I've never used Phoenix, but I know it's a great wallet and totally self-custody. Some folks might find Cashu worthwhile in instances. Choices are nice to have, right?!

Awesome, looking forward to seeing things grow out. Thanks for what you do.

Amen. And that usually means...always! Frankly, in all cases and with all people, I've found that trying to keep my mouth shut and ears open tends to see things go a lot better. Key word: "trying"

Last night my wife and I went for a drive. She was talking sweetly about plans for "when we retire." One plan was to begin after I get through this "bitcoin phase."

My brain thought, "You never get over the bitcoin phase. Once orange-pilled, you can't unsee things."

I kept my mouth shut.

The last moon pics I took were during the eclipse (the experience was great, the photos were terrible). Paused while riding my bicycle to work and snapped this one just before sunrise today. For some reason, maybe the way the plants seem to be reaching upward, I recalled the "To the Moon Guy" back on Reddit. Haven't checked /r/bitcoin in forever, but that moon battle cry used to be a thing.

Anyway, it was a nice pause this morning, a quiet, still morning look at the moon. I need more of these types of moments.

This is just crazy enough and ugly enough that I like it. I actually talk nostr on nostr (because (a) it's new and growing and needs feedback and (b) where else do you talk nostr?). But nevertheless, props to you...learned stuff, had a thorn in your side, dug in, did something about it. Love it.

Well, that wasn't very kind of you. Yes, I understand what you're saying. The point I'm making is that going through those steps to get bitcoin is a lot of unnecessary steps. If the goal is to get bitcoin, one could simply get bitcoin, avoid the others, and avoid the possibilities of messing up or code flaws or hacks or whatever.

Heh

Made this clip from the Unchained podcast by Laura Shin. https://fountain.fm/clip/JO4GujaaACldPIr52NWs It's about a bitcoin layer 2 called Botanix. I'm not against L2s, actually think a ton of innovation can and will occur there, but...I dunno.

Sounds like a lot of steps, a lotta trust places, and a lotta chances for me to screw up somewhere along the line.

So, what you gotta do is...

. start on Ethereum . use a bridge to port over to Botanix . then you have wrapped ETH . then you can go to uniswap and swap wrapped ETH for bitcoin . then you have BTC on bitcoin

Love the last line in the clip, "Right, right."

Interesting you mention badges. First, aren't those client-specific? (I'm really not sure.) If so, that wouldn't work as an NFT...the whole point of an NFT is that it is unique (U) and if each client did their own thing...not unique.

Also, the (O) of ownership would be a problem in my mind. Though I don't know how badges work on Nostr, my guess is that they are assigned to me (like an airdrop?). But, as such, I can't transfer them away from my "account".

Anyway, the reason I say it's interesting is that I kind of had a discussion on this on badges on the Hive blockchain...are badges really NFTs?

Appreciate the idea.

Just wanted to point out a distinction...

Often we hear something like, "All religions seek to reach the mountaintop. It may be called nirvana, enlightenment, or heaven, or whatever. But, there are many paths to that mountaintop, with each religion merely following a different path up to the same peak." Your passage below seems to reflect that.

However, Christianity is different. Other religions rely on a person doing something to reach that peak...meditation, sacrifice, good works, etc, as you allude. With Christianity, Jesus came down from the mountaintop to carry us all up. Reaching the peak is a gift given to us independent of anything we've done or anything we do. Grace.